The present invention relates to a transporting arrangement for transferring transversely folded printed products to a third fold, as used in a folding apparatus for fast roller rotary printing machines.
Various transporting arrangements for transferring of transversely folded printed products to a third fold are known. The known transporting arrangements can be subdivided into two types. In the arrangement of the first type the splitting of the product stream into two partial streams of the same thickness is performed directly at the folding cylinder of the transverse fold device, so that the transversely folded printed products are taken by the folding cylinder at two points. The conveying routes are provided with different lengths and with regard to a speed reduction for the products to have different dimensions. An arrangement of this type is disclosed for example in the German document DE-AS 2,750,792.
In the arrangements of the second type the transversely folded printed products are taken at a single point of the folding cylinder of the transverse folding device so that two partial streams of transversely folded printed products are produced by subsequent alternatingly controlled product deflectors, and then both devices for forming a third fold act on the product streams. The arrangements of the second type are disclosed for example in the German document DE-OS 3,527,710 and have transporting routes which are bent many times and provided with conveyor guides. Only because of the expensive conveyor guides which transport the product positively by positive engagement with the conveyor, the acceleration jams at the unstable points of the conveying route are avoided which otherwise would worsen the position accuracy of the products. A subsequent position correction by abutments in cooperation with the conveyor guides inside the devices for forming a third fold is connected with a long scraping of the freshly printed products between the conveyors thus causing smearing danger. The squeezing of the products during abrupt direction changes of the conveying route negatively influences the folding quality of the sensitive products.